Why Multiverse, Why?
West Berlin February 1969 in front of the Brandenburg gate The GND border guards were quite bored on this cold, not to say icy, day. Nothing had been moving on the soviet side since a week ago. Two guardsmen meet on their patrol-ways and they lit up each other´s cigarette. Then they went on in silence. Then suddenly a booming sound thundered across the square of April the 25th, followed by a flash of white-blue that dimmed down to the intensity of a floodlight. Lightnings made from strange particles rose to the sky causing all guards within view to squint at the much too bright shape beginning to melt into the world. “Verdammt! Ein Zeitvortex!”(Damn! A time-vortex!) “Zurück, schnell!”(Back, quick!) The shape now expanded quickly dimming further down. “HQ, this is Reichstag guard 3, we have an unidentified chronoportation-craft materializing in the middle of the plaza 25!” “This is HQ, repeat and describe! We have no information on any tests, so act with prejudice.” “A unidentified craft is chronoported right in midst of the plaza. It´s much brighter than normal ports, but the overall appearance is the same. The actual size is something around that of an Assault Lander, but it is still getting bigger.” “Can you make a guess what it will look like when it´s done?” “My serious opinion? Looks like an honest to god Oni mecha!” “Are you positive on that?” “With this size and proportions? I wouldn´t know anything else!” “Damn! Hold your position we will send you the tanks!” The light now had dimmed to the brightness of a campfire, but even so it was impossible to like at whatever it was. The pure “strangeness” caused by the time-space distorsion made it a physical pain to have a direct look. “Na, irgendwas musste ja schiefgehen!”(Well, something had to go wrong!)grunted the guard closest to the thing. The Guards went into kneeling shooting position and locked and loaded their FAILs. They could eventually handle Tesla Troopers with their AP rounds, but if it was anything that the size suggested they would stand no chance without the tanks. This was Berlin after-all and the low rumble of Predators and Mastiffs were already audible through the silent city, but if they wouldn´t arrive in time it could very well be that the men were done for. Suddenly all that was left of the brightness was a glow and with a loud pop like a giant bubblegum, the object twisted into comprehensibility and revealed itself as... “Eine Glocke? Sind die bei Future Tech jetzt völlig verrückt geworden?”(A Bell? Did they go completely nuts at Future Tech?) “HQ? This is no Oni, but I have no idea how this makes sense! It looks like a church bell of insane size. It is around 20 meters high and messures about 10 meters at the base. And it has markings!” “What markings?” “A really big black swastika on a white circle on a red square. Who uses these?” “No one, no military force marks their crafts this way. Could this be the result of a time-travel accident? Any clues that it is a product of multiple timelines?” A guard on the far side of the square called out:”Das hab´ ich doch schon mal irgendwo gesehen!”(I have seen this somewhere before!) “How should I know, I don´t have degree in chronotech or something!” Any further complaints were drowned out by the characteristic hiss of airlocks and hydraulics, as a part of the bell´s wall began to open out into a ramp broad enough to drive a truck over it. In a gush of steam, four heavy figures emerged. These were undoubtly some kind of battlesuits, the black bulky constructs resembling Tesla Troopers, at the same time could not be of soviet origin for their massive Stahlhelm-like headpieces with heavy leathermasks. They were all armed with supersized ADKs of sorts. “Was zur Hölle?!”(What the hell?!), the men nearly shot, they would have if the suits would have had their weapons raised a pit more. “Halt! Stop!” The suits actually stopped on the ramp to give escort to a fifth black battlesuit. This one was much more elegant and sophisticated than the others, and instead of a heavy helmet had a mask with a ludicrous peaked cap with a silver skull on it. A big sidearm dangled in a holster at the hip. He stopped just two steps off the ramp and put off his headgear. Brought to light was the face of a european man in his forties, cleanly shaved, the hair combed back and put to absolute halt with wax. His features were remarkable for their lack of anything remarkable. He slammed his metal bot together and made a strange salute by swiping his outstretched arm up. “SS Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler meldet sich bereit dem Reich zu dienen!”((Evil Nazi) Hans Kammler reports for duty to the Reich!) First then he registered the absolute puzzlement of the men pointing rifles on him and his companions. “Wir befinden uns im Jahr 1939, in Berlin, nicht?”(It is the year 1939 and we are in Berlin, aren´t we?) “Nö, es is´ 1969 aber Berlin ist schon richtig. Und wie zur Hölle sind Sie hier hin gekommen, vor allem woher?”(Nope, it´s 1969, but Berlin is correct. And how the hell did you get here, especially where from?) “Dies ist teil des Projektes Glocke, wir gedachten eigentlich...”(This is part of project Bell, actually we were heading...) A man in a simple leather pressure suit ran out of the Bell, he had no mask on, and... had an astounding resemblence to Wernher von Braun. “Hört nicht auf ihn, glaubt ihm nicht ein Wort!”(Don´t listen to him, believe not on word!), he shouted. The two battlesuits close to the doorway just raised their arms and stopped him cold in his tracks, gripping by the shoulders. “Ich bin Sie langsam leid, Doktor!”(I am growing tired of you, Doctor!) But the man would not let go:”Nehmen Sie die Männer fest! Sie haben keine Ahnung wofür die verantwortlich sind!”(Take these men into custody! You have no idea what they are responsible for!) Kammler now shouted:”DAS REICHT!”(That´s enough!) He pulled out his pistol in one swift motion and executed the protester with a shot to the head, without even looking in his direction. That is one of the things one simply does not do if there are nervous men around with assault rifles locked and loaded. Out of reflex the first shots were fired. One glanced Kammlers cheek, others hit his escort, but all ricochetted off. He turned around and pike dived for his vehicle, an incredible move considering his heavy armour. But the chaos had been set loose. The GND guards went prone and fired long bursts of heavy AP-bullets at the black-clad travellers, who returned fire with big caliber explosive rounds, blasting the men to pieces. But out of a side street the first Predator sped ready to fire at anything that tried to mess with the Allied Nations. “Panther 5, wir sehen das Zielgebiet, was ist los?”(This is Panther 5, we have line of sight, what is going on?) “Das Objekt und Besatzung sind feindlich, Angriff erfolgte, macht sie fertig!”(The object and crew are hostile, attack commenced, give ´em hell!) The last part was cut off by an explosive bullet that splattered the speaker all over the square. The tank crew didn´t hesitate and the autoloader began to stomp 88mm APHE shells into the chamber, with the heavy gun spewing thundering vengeance. The battlesuits were washed away, shell by shell, each hitting with deadly precision, penetrating the frontal plates of the suits first and then ripping them apart from within. A rain of burning liquid, smoking metal shards and unholy smear came down on the already messed up cobble. A second Predator together with a Whippet full of Panzergrenadiers entered the plaza, now opening fire on the Bell itself. A Panzerfaust rocket tumbled toward it and lived up to its name creating a deep impression on the hull. A sabot round penetrated never to be seen again, while the border guards scurried away to let the panzers do their destructive work. The Bell however seemed not in the mood to just take damage: the first blue arcs lashed out, heralding the beginning chronoportation. The 88s keptpounding riddling it with sabot and HEAT shells creating more and more absurd reactions of the time-space torsion. Just when the weird construct seemed to have half-twisted out of this universe it suddenly exploded in green fire, which slowed down within the second. Following it was a sudden twitch of the surrounding air, as if the continuum itself jolted in pain. Then came a swirl, a small cyclone of blue glittering chrono energy that scooped up single stones from the ground and plastered it with water at other points. In a last roar the phenomenon collapsed into itself, a number of screws and a single file falling to the ground. One of the three surviving border guards stepped closer curious about what it might contain. When he was sure not even the slightest tingle of strangeness was left he knelt down and picked it up. “Die Endlösung der Judenfrage?!”, he tried to make sense of the title but ultimativly couldn´t, so he flapped through the pages reading a few lines here and there. And that was already enough to make him turn sober and disgusted. “What lunacy!”, he thought. Another thought occurred to him. He took out his lighter and then carefully set fire to the pages filled with inhuman hate. When the flames nearly touched his fingers he let it fall down, put his boot on it and carefully twisted until only a small lump of ash and braised leather remained. Finally he called out:”Noch jemand der Bier brauchen kann? Ich geb´ einen aus!”(Anyone else fells after a beer? I´m standing a round!”) Some of the Panzergrenadiers cheerfully approved, but weren´t allowed to join in by their officer. So it was only the three border guards going to a bar a block away. What a strange day.